霞

xiá

noun #34,165

Meanings

1 rosy clouds (at sunrise or sunset)
2 afterglow
3 rosy sky

Characters

霞

xiá

rosy clouds

Examples

天边的霞光美极了。

Tiānbiān de xiá guāng měi jíle.

The rosy glow at the horizon is gorgeous.

落霞与孤鹜齐飞。

Luòxiáyǔgūwùqífēi.

The sunset clouds fly together with the lone wild duck.

Tips

culture

The classic line 落霞与孤鹜齐飞，秋水共长天一色 ('Sunset clouds fly with the lone wild duck; autumn waters share one color with the boundless sky') comes from Wang Bo's 《滕王阁序》 (Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng, 7th century) — possibly the most famous depiction of 霞 in classical literature.

memory

The character is a phono-semantic compound: 雨 (rain) on top for 'sky/weather,' 叚 (jiǎ) on the bottom for the sound. Compare 虾 (shrimp), 假 (false), 瑕 (flaw) — all share the 叚 component for the 'xia/jia' sound family.

Components

radical

雨 yǔ

rain; precipitation

Top rain radical (Kangxi #173) — pictograph of clouds with falling raindrops. Indexes 霞 firmly in the weather-and-sky family: 雪 (snow), 雷 (thunder), 雾 (fog), 露 (dew), 霜 (frost). 霞 names the rosy mist or coloured clouds painted across the sky at dawn or dusk — pure sky phenomenon, hence the rain radical perched on top like the clouds themselves.

phonetic

叚 xiá

borrow; rosy (here phonetic)

Bottom 叚 supplies the sound — xiá unchanged. 叚 is the archaic form of 假 (to borrow); the meaning doesn't carry directly. Pure phonetic role. Same phonetic in 假 (borrow/false), 暇 (leisure — borrowed time), 瑕 (flaw in jade), 遐 (distant). 朝霞 'morning glow' and 晚霞 'evening glow' are the classic compounds; the character carries an unmistakably poetic register.

Stroke Order

霞 xiá

霞